New Hampshire conducts bird flu drills

New Hampshire conducts bird flu drills

In an effort to test their preparedness in the event of a bird flu outbreak, New Hampshire carried out an exhaustive and expensive drill.

The exercise centered around the return of a college student from Indonesia who is infected with the H5N1 virus and passes it to other passengers during her bus journey from Montréal to the University of New Hampshire in Durham. The epidemic spreads to Portsmouth, Colebrook, and Manchester, following which 46 students are quarantined on the UNH campus.

While a vaccine is available, organizing a mass immunization program while providing medication to the sick, testing those with symptoms, and quarantining all in danger of being affected is a major challenge; specifically in a rural state that hardy has 2,500 hospital beds.

In what can be termed as a rehearsal for the final test, it was noticed that the hospitals were flooded with patients, as a result of which police were having difficulty in segregating those infected. Also, compounding matters was the lack of vaccine and Tamiflu.

Mary Anne Cooney, the New Hampshire Medical Director described the drill as a test of how efficiently they could respond in case of a genuine crisis. Says Cooney, "No one knows when this is going to hit or if it's going to hit at all but we didn't want to be caught unaware.”

John Stephens, New Hampshire's Heath and Human Services commissioner commented that they are learning new things and won't be content until they devise the best possible strategy to safeguard the health of the general public. Stephens did feel the drills were a success.

With the completion of the drill, it is important for New Hampshire to now address the relevant issues that were evident like insufficient laws to enforce a quarantine and ethical concerns as to who should be the receive proper treatment first.

The drill costing between $150,000 and $200,000 was funded by the federal government and coordinated by an Alexandria, Va.-based CRA, a homeland security company.

Till now, bird flu has shown no sign of efficient human-to-human transmission, but public health specialists still believe things should not be taken for granted.

Incidentally, a real life tragedy similar to the drill has occurred in China wherein the government has locked down a village following the death of a woman from avian flu. The deceased, a 24-year-old, has been officially confirmed as the country's first bird flu casualty.